Audience adjusted gaming

ABSTRACT

A system and method includes a first device with one or more processors coupled to a memory that executes instructions from the memory to perform the steps of receiving a request to begin a videogame; streaming video of the videogame to an audience; determine a popularity of the streaming video; and changing the videogame mechanics based on the popularity of the streaming video.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/585,089, filed Dec. 29, 2014, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,155,167, issued onDec. 18, 2018, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND Field of the Disclosure

The present disclosure generally relates to gaming mechanicsparticularly to systems and methods for audience adjusted gamingmechanics.

Related Art

With the availability of live video recording and streaming over theinternet, a large market for video game recordings and streams hasdeveloped. Some video games have developed in a similar fashion assports where the players are able to earn a living by playing videogames competitively. Competitive video gaming is sometimes beingreferred to as electronic sports or e-sports. Other avenues ofprofessional video gaming also include individuals providing videoreplays and/or streams of tutorials, reviews, commentary, competitionbreakdowns, video game play through, general playing, and/or the like.Many gamers (people who play video games) are able to earn money throughad revenue generated from streaming video channels that the gamer hascreated. Popular websites for creating channels include Youtube® andTwitch®. These gamers usually get paid based on a combination of numberof subscribers and views. In some cases, these gamers also are able toearn additional funds through donations, sponsorships, making liveappearances, and/or the like. Generally, the more views a gamer isgetting on their channel the more revenue the gamer can generate throughads, sponsorships, and/or the like.

Currently technology in the game streaming area is under developed.Beyond adding chat and message abilities, video games are streamed onthe audience's monitor and/or television for viewing. Interactiveelements have not been widely introduced. Adding in features to increaseaudience engagement may increase viewership, benefiting the gamingindustry as a whole. Thus a system and method for adjusting video gamemechanics to pander to its audience would be beneficial.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary computing system that isadapted for implementing a system of audience adjusted video games.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary computer system suitable forimplementing one or more devices of the computing system in FIG. 1 andthe embodiments in this disclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary method of audienceadjusted game mechanics based on the popularity of the player and/orchannel.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary method for audiencesto aid players streaming a competitive video game.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary method forautomatically adjusting game mechanics based on audience preferences

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary user interface that may be used with asystem and method of audience adjusted game mechanics.

Embodiments of the present disclosure and their advantages are bestunderstood by referring to the detailed description that follows. Itshould be appreciated that like reference numerals are used to identifylike elements illustrated in one or more of the figures, whereinshowings therein are for purposes of illustrating embodiments of thepresent disclosure and not for purposes of limiting the same.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, specific details are set forth describingsome embodiments consistent with the present disclosure. It will beapparent, however, to one skilled in the art that some embodiments maybe practiced without some or all of these specific details. The specificembodiments disclosed herein are meant to be illustrative but notlimiting. One skilled in the art may realize other elements that,although not specifically described here, are within the scope and thespirit of this disclosure. In addition, to avoid unnecessary repetition,one or more features shown and described in association with oneembodiment may be incorporated into other embodiments unlessspecifically described otherwise or if the one or more features wouldmake an embodiment non-functional.

In some embodiments, a system and method provide audience members of avideo game the ability to affect the difficulty of a game. In someexamples, the difficulty of the game increases incrementally when thereis an increase in the number of viewers, number of monetary donors,points donors, votes, number of subscribers and/or the like. Gamingdifficultly may be changed in a variety of ways including, but notlimited to, changing character statistics, minion statistics, number ofminions, item drops, map sizes, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, a system and method are provided for changing gamemechanics to affect the competitive advantage for one or more players ina player vs player (PvP) game. For example, a player with more viewers,subscribers, fans, votes, and/or the like may receive attribute boosts(also referred to as stat boosts). Attributes such as health, defense,attack, and speed build speed, lives, stealth, and/or any other stat. Insome examples, the audience may incrementally affect the game mechanicsas more and more viewers watch, subscribe, vote, and/or otherwisesupport a player and/or teams of players. In this manner, players areincentivized to grow their fan base, which in turn may increase adrevenue and/or increase the popularity of a game. Furthermore, aninteresting video game dynamic may occur where players who are not asskilled at the game may be able to gain an advantage by growing theirchannel popularity. A particularly charismatic player with a lot of fansmay be supported sufficiently to play competitively against extremelyskilled players with fewer fans. In some examples, the skill andpopularity of a player may be used to calculate a ranking, and matchingsystem may match the player with other players with similar rankings.

In some embodiments, a system and method are provided for analyzingvideo game viewership to identify gaming situations that are popular tothe viewers. For example, certain maps, races, character combinations,and/or difficulty levels of a game may receive the most views. In someexamples, the system and method may increase the odds of popular videogame scenarios to reoccur.

In some embodiments, a media display system is provided, the mediadisplay system including a first device with one or more processorscoupled to a memory. The processor may execute instructions from thememory to perform the steps of receiving a request to begin a videogame, streaming video of the video game to an audience, determine apopularity of the streaming video, and changing one or more video gamemechanics based on the popularity of the streaming video.

In some embodiments, a computer implemented method of broadcasting avideo game is provided. The method may include, receiving a request tobegin the video game from a player from a first device, streaming thevideo game to a second device being viewed by a viewer, receiving anindication from the second device to help the player, and providing helpto the player in response to the indication.

In some embodiments, a media display system is provided. The mediadisplay system may include a first device with one or more processorscoupled to a memory and executes instructions from the memory to performthe steps of identifying a plurality of viewers of a media stream,identifying a preferred game mechanic of the plurality of viewers,receiving a request to start a video game displayed in the media stream,and changing the video game based on the preferred game mechanic.

FIG. 1 illustrates, in block diagram format, an exemplary embodiment ofa computing system adapted for implementing a system and method foraudience adjusted gaming. As shown, a computing system 100 may compriseor implement a plurality of servers and/or software components thatoperate to perform various methodologies in accordance with thedescribed embodiments. Exemplary servers may include, for example,stand-alone and enterprise-class servers operating a server operatingsystem (OS) such as a MICROSOFT® OS, a UNIX® OS, a LINUX® OS, or othersuitable server-based OS. It may be appreciated that the serversillustrated in FIG. 1 may be deployed in other ways and that theoperations performed and/or the services provided by such servers may becombined, distributed, and/or separated for a given implementation andmay be performed by a greater number or fewer number of servers. One ormore servers may be operated and/or maintained by the same or differententities.

Computing system 100 may include, among various devices, servers,databases and other elements, one or more clients 102 that may compriseor employ one or more client devices 104, such as a laptop, a mobilecomputing device, a tablet, a PC, a wearable device, and/or any othercomputing device having computing and/or communications capabilities inaccordance with the described embodiments. Client devices 104 mayinclude a cellular telephone, smart phone, or other similar mobiledevices that a user may carry on or about his or her person and accessreadily.

Client devices 104 generally may provide one or more client programs106, such as system programs, gaming programs, and application programsto perform various computing and/or communications operations. Exemplarysystem programs may include, without limitation, an operating system(e.g., MICROSOFT® OS, UNIX® OS, LINUX® OS, Symbian OS™, Embedix OS,Binary Run-time Environment for Wireless (BREW) OS, JavaOS, a WirelessApplication Protocol (WAP) OS, and others), device drivers, programmingtools, utility programs, software libraries, application programminginterfaces (APIs), and so forth. Exemplary application programs mayinclude, without limitation, videogames, web browser applications,messaging applications (e.g., e-mail, IM, SMS, MMS, telephone,voicemail, VoIP, video messaging), contacts applications, calendarapplications, electronic document applications, database applications,media applications (e.g., music, video, television), location-basedservices (LBS) applications (e.g., GPS, mapping, directions, positioningsystems, geolocation, point-of-interest, locator), and so forth. One ormore of client programs 106 may display various graphical userinterfaces (GUIs) to present information to and/or receive informationfrom one or more users of client devices 104. In some embodiments,client programs 106 may include one or more applications configured toconduct some or all of the functionalities and/or processes discussedherein.

As shown, client devices 104 may be communicatively coupled via one ormore networks 108 to a network-based system 110. Network-based system110 may be structured, arranged, and/or configured to allow client 102to establish one or more communications sessions between network-basedsystem 110 and various computing devices 104 and/or client programs 106.Accordingly, a communications session between client devices 104 andnetwork-based system 110 may involve the unidirectional and/orbidirectional exchange of information and may occur over one or moretypes of networks 108 depending on the mode of communication. While theembodiment of FIG. 1 illustrates a computing system 100 deployed in aclient-server operating environment, it is to be understood that othersuitable operating environments and/or architectures may be used inaccordance with the described embodiments.

Data communications between client devices 104 and the network-basedsystem 110 may be sent and received over one or more networks 108 suchas the Internet, a WAN, a WWAN, a WLAN, a mobile telephone network, alandline telephone network, as well as other suitable networks. Forexample, client devices 104 may communicate with network-based system110 over the Internet or other suitable WAN by sending and or receivinginformation via interaction with a web site, e-mail, IM session, videomessaging session, and/or other communication applications. Any of awide variety of suitable communication types between client devices 104and system 110 may take place, as will be readily appreciated. Inparticular, wireless communications of any suitable form may take placebetween client device 104 and system 110.

In various embodiments, computing system 100 may include, among otherelements, a third party 112, which may comprise or employ a third-partyserver 114 hosting a third-party application 116 and third-party devices118. In various implementations, third-party server 114 and/orthird-party application 116 may host applications associated with oremployed by a third party 112. For example, third-party server 114and/or third-party application 116 may enable network-based system 110to provide client 102 with additional services and/or information, suchas online videogame hosting, live video game streams, and/or the like,some of which are discussed herein. Third-party server 114 and/orthird-party application 116 may also provide system 110 and/or client102 with other information and/or services, such as email servicesand/or information, social networking services and/or information, userstatistics and/or other online services and/or information.

In one embodiment, third-party server 114 may include a socialnetworking server that hosts a user's social network account. In anotherembodiment, third party-server 114 may include an email server thathosts a user's email account. In yet another embodiment, third-partysever 114 may include one or more servers for aggregating user data andstatistics.

Network-based system 110 may comprise one or more communications servers120 to provide suitable interfaces that enable communication usingvarious modes of communication and/or via one or more networks 108.Communications servers 120 may include a web server 122, an API server124, and/or a messaging server 126 to provide interfaces to one or moreapplication servers 130. Application servers 130 of network-based system110 may be structured, arranged, and/or configured to provide variousonline services, account authentication, social networking, accountmanagement, and other services to users that access network-based system110. In various embodiments, client 102 may communicate withapplications servers 130 of network-based system 110 using one or moreclient devices 104 via one or more of a web interface provided by webserver 122, a programmatic interface provided by API server 124, and/ora messaging interface provided by messaging server 126. It may beappreciated that web server 122, API server 124, and messaging server126 may be structured, arranged, and/or configured to communicate withvarious types of client devices 104 and/or client programs 106 and mayinteroperate with each other in some implementations.

Web server 122 may be arranged to communicate with web clients and/orapplications such as a web browser, web browser toolbar, desktop widget,mobile widget, web-based application, web-based interpreter, virtualmachine, and so forth. API server 124 may be arranged to communicatewith various client programs 106 and/or a third-party application 116comprising an implementation of API for network-based system 110.Messaging server 126 may be arranged to communicate with variousmessaging clients and/or applications such as e-mail, IM, SMS, MMS,telephone, VoIP, video messaging, and so forth, and messaging server 126may provide a messaging interface to enable access by client 102 and/orthird party 112 to the various services and functions provided byapplication servers 130.

When configured to implement a system and method for audience adjustedgaming, application servers 130 of network-based system 110 may be aserver that provides various gaming services. Application server 130 ofnetwork-based system 110 may provide services such as, game hosting,player matching, game streaming and/or recording, messaging, user datagathering, and/or other services. Application servers 130 may include anaccount server 132, a game hosting server 138, a media streaming server140, a payment server 142, a notification server 144, and/or a matchmaking server 146. Application servers 130 may further include anaccount ranking server 134, and a communications server 136. Theseservers, which may be in addition to other servers, may be structuredand arranged to aid in hosting, displaying, and adjusting videogame playin addition to some or all of the other services as discussed above andin more detail below.

Application servers 130, in turn, may be coupled to and capable ofaccessing one or more databases 150 including a gaming statisticsdatabase 152, a replay database 154, and/or user account database 156.Databases 150 generally may store and maintain various types ofinformation for use by application servers 130 and may comprise or beimplemented by various types of computer storage devices (e.g., servers,memory) and/or database structures (e.g., relational, object-oriented,hierarchical, dimensional, network) in accordance with the describedembodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary computer system 200 in block diagramformat suitable for implementing on one or more devices of the computingsystem in FIG. 1. In various implementations, a device that includescomputer system 200 may comprise a personal computing device (e.g., asmart or mobile phone, a computing tablet, a personal computer, laptop,wearable device, PDA, Bluetooth device, key FOB, badge, etc.) that iscapable of communicating with a network. A service provider and/or apayment provider may utilize a network computing device (e.g., a networkserver) capable of communicating with the network. It should beappreciated that each of the devices utilized by users, serviceproviders, and payment providers may be implemented as computer system200 in a manner as follows.

Computer system 200 may include a bus 202 or other communicationmechanisms for communicating information data, signals, and informationbetween various components of computer system 200. Components include aninput/output (I/O) component 204 that processes a user action, such asselecting keys from a keypad/keyboard, selecting one or more buttons,links, actuatable elements, etc., and sends a corresponding signal tobus 202. I/O component 204 may also include an output component, such asa display 211 and a cursor control 213 (such as a keyboard, keypad,mouse, touch screen, etc.). An optional audio input/output component 205may also be included to allow a user to use voice for inputtinginformation by converting audio signals. Audio I/O component 205 mayallow the user to hear audio. A transceiver or network interface 206transmits and receives signals between computer system 200 and otherdevices, such as another user device, a merchant server, an emailserver, application service provider, web server, a social networkingserver, a payment provider server, and/or other servers via a network.In various embodiments, such as for many cellular telephone and othermobile device embodiments, this transmission may be wireless, althoughother transmission mediums and methods may also be suitable. A processor212, which may be a micro-controller, digital signal processor (DSP), orother processing component, processes these various signals, such as fordisplay on computer system 200 or transmission to other devices over anetwork 260 via a communication link 218. Again, communication link 218may be a wireless communication in some embodiments. Processor 212 mayalso control transmission of information, such as cookies, IP addresses,and/or the like to other devices.

Components of computer system 200 also include a system memory component214 (e.g., RAM), a static storage component 216 (e.g., ROM), and/or adisk drive 217. Computer system 200 performs specific operations byprocessor 212 and other components by executing one or more sequences ofinstructions contained in system memory component 214. Logic may beencoded in a computer readable medium, which may refer to any mediumthat participates in providing instructions to processor 212 forexecution. Such a medium may take many forms, including but not limitedto, non-volatile media, volatile media, and/or transmission media. Invarious implementations, non-volatile media includes optical or magneticdisks, volatile media includes dynamic memory, such as system memorycomponent 214, and transmission media includes coaxial cables, copperwire, and fiber optics, including wires that comprise bus 202. In oneembodiment, the logic is encoded in a non-transitory machine-readablemedium. In one example, transmission media may take the form of acousticor light waves, such as those generated during radio wave, optical, andinfrared data communications.

Some common forms of computer readable media include, for example,floppy disk, flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magneticmedium, CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, anyother physical medium with patterns of holes, RAM, PROM, EPROM,FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, or any other mediumfrom which a computer is adapted to read.

In various embodiments of the present disclosure, execution ofinstruction sequences to practice the present disclosure may beperformed by computer system 200. In various other embodiments of thepresent disclosure, a plurality of computer systems 200 coupled bycommunication link 218 to the network (e.g., such as a LAN, WLAN, PTSN,and/or various other wired or wireless networks, includingtelecommunications, mobile, and cellular phone networks) may performinstruction sequences to practice the present disclosure in coordinationwith one another. Modules described herein may be embodied in one ormore computer readable media or be in communication with one or moreprocessors to execute or process the steps described herein.

A computer system may transmit and receive messages, data, informationand instructions, including one or more programs (i.e., applicationcode) through a communication link and a communication interface.Received program code may be executed by a processor as received and/orstored in a disk drive component or some other non-volatile storagecomponent for execution.

Where applicable, various embodiments provided by the present disclosuremay be implemented using hardware, software, or combinations of hardwareand software. Also, where applicable, the various hardware componentsand/or software components set forth herein may be combined intocomposite components comprising software, hardware, and/or both withoutdeparting from the spirit of the present disclosure. Where applicable,the various hardware components and/or software components set forthherein may be separated into sub-components comprising software,hardware, or both without departing from the scope of the presentdisclosure. In addition, where applicable, it is contemplated thatsoftware components may be implemented as hardware components andvice-versa.

Software, in accordance with the present disclosure, such as programcode and/or data, may be stored on one or more computer readable media.It is also contemplated that software identified herein may beimplemented using one or more computers and/or computer systems,networked and/or otherwise. Such software may be stored and/or used atone or more locations along or throughout the system, at client 102,network-based system 110, or both. Where applicable, the ordering ofvarious steps described herein may be changed, combined into compositesteps, and/or separated into sub-steps to provide features describedherein.

The foregoing networks, systems, devices, and numerous variationsthereof may be used to implement one or more methods and/or services,such as the services discussed above and in more detail below.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary method of audienceadjusted game mechanics based on the popularity of the player and/orchannel.

At 301, a player and/or a user may request to begin a video game on asystem such as network-based system 110 of FIG. 1 using one of theclient devices of client devices 104 of FIG. 1. The video game may be asingle or multiplayer campaign style game wherein a storyline or a setof adventures in the video game is played out by the players with thepurposes of reaching the end of the game. In some embodiments, the endof the story line is the end of the game. Many gamers will providestreams and/or replays of quick completions of games often referred toas “speedruns.” Speedruns refer to players that rush through the storyline of a game to reach completion in the shortest amount of time. Manyviewers are interested in speedruns because it allows the viewer toexperience the story of the game without having to work through the gamethemselves.

In some examples, the game may be a PvP game, where the players arepitted against each other competitively. Examples of PvP games include,but are not limited to, real time strategy (RTS) games, first personshooters (FPS), and/or fighting games. PvP games also often have acampaign mode for players to play. Individuals usually watch PvP gamesfor the same type of thrill people get from watching competitive sportsmatches. PvP games will often have similar dramatic and suspensefulsituations are a professional sports match.

In some embodiments, the request to begin a video game may be a loginevent, such as submitting a username and password for an account to aserver. In other embodiments, the request may be the actuation of avirtual button on a user interface used to initiate a game.

At 302, the request received at 301 may trigger a stream and/orbroadcast of the player's game. The stream may be a broadcast of ascreen region capture, game capture, video camera capture, or acombination thereof. In some embodiments, the video steam may be handledby a third party application installed on the device of the user andsent to a broadcasting server such as media streaming server 140 of FIG.1 for broadcasting. The broadcast of the game may be available toviewers through a web application, website, phone application, and/orthe like.

At 303, the system may determine the popularity of the stream.Determining the popularity of the stream may include determining thenumber of current viewers and/or subscribers to the channel of the user.In some example, the popularity may be determined by the total number ofviews. In some example, the system may determine popularity frommonetary donations to the channel. As more money is donated to theplayer, the system may increase its popularity determination for theplayer.

At 304, the system may change some of the game mechanics based on thepopularity determination at 303. In some embodiments, the difficulty ofa campaign style game may be incrementally increased until a maximumdifficulty is reached. The difficulty of the game can be changed in anumber of ways, including, but not limited to, changing in-gamecharacter attributes, changing villain and/or minion attributes,changing the number of minions, changing map sizes, changing timelimitations, changing the number of missions, change odds of health orhelpful item drops in the game and/or the like. In-game characters,minions, villains, heroes, champions and individual army makeup areoften referred to as “units”.

For example, a character that a user is playing may have a lifeattribute of 100. The player may lose a game when the life attribute isreduced to 0. To increase the difficulty of the game, the starting lifeattribute may be reduced in relation to the number of viewers,subscribers, and/or donors. In some instances, the life attribute may bereduced by 1 for every 100 viewers, with a maximum reduction of 50. Inthis case, the life attribute will reduce until there are 5000 viewersor more, where the maximum reduction is reached at 50.

In some examples the system may aid a player based on the popularitydetermination, at 303. In a PvP game, fans may support a particularplayer/team by watching a streaming game from the channel of thatplayer/team. As more fans view, subscribe, or donate to a channel for auser or team, character attributes and/or in-game items to help the teamor individual may occur. In this manner, the audience support may affectthe outcome of a competitive match. For example, a character that a useris playing may have a DPS attribute of 10. In some instances, the DPSattribute may be increased by 1 for every 100 viewers. Other attributesthat may be affected include, but are not limited to, health, defense,movements speed, and/or the like.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary method 400 foraudiences to aid players streaming a competitive video game according toan embodiment.

At 401, a player and/or a user may request to begin a video game on asystem such as network-based system 110 of FIG. 1 using one of theclient devices of client devices 104 of FIG. 1. The videogame may be aPvP game, where players and/or teams of players are pitted against eachother competitively. The PvP games may have power up items normallyavailable in the game. Power up items may include, but are not limitedto, health potions, weapons, armor, virtual currency, magical items thatprovide special abilities, and/or the like.

The request may be a login event, such as submitting a username andpassword for an account to a server. In other embodiments, the requestmay be the actuation of a virtual button on a user interface used toinitiate a game.

At 402, the request received at 401 may trigger a stream and/orbroadcast of the player's game. The stream may be a broadcast of ascreen region capture, game capture, video camera capture, or acombination thereof. In some embodiments, the video steam may be handledby a third party application installed on the device of the user andsent to a broadcasting server such as media streaming server 140 of FIG.1 for broadcasting. The broadcast of the game may be available toviewers through a web application, website, phone application, and/orthe like.

At 403, the system may provide viewers with the ability to aid and/orhinder a team in the PvP game through a graphical user interface. Insome embodiments, the ability to aid and/or hinder a team in a PvP gamemay require a donation from the viewer. In some examples, the donationmay determine how much a viewer can aid or hinder a team.

The ability to hinder and/or aid a player or team in a game may be theability to change unit and/or character attributes (e.g. increase and/ordecrease attack points, damage output, damage per second (DPS), defensepoints, etc.), change re-spawn times (e.g. increase/decrease re-spawnwait time after a character death by 30 seconds), change movementspeeds, change the number of minions and/or the strength of minions, setbooby-traps, heal units (e.g. heal units to full life points), damageunits (e.g. remove life points), provide item drops (e.g. weapons,health potions, etc.), reveal a portion of the map, reveal enemy plansand/or the like. In some examples, the aid and/or hindrance may betemporary, such as for a short period of time (e.g. less than thirtyseconds, a minute, five minutes, etc.), until the end of a match and/orround, until the death of a character or a certain number of deaths,and/or the like. The unit being affected by the aid and/or hindrance maybe a unit controlled by a player in the game and/or an opponent to theplayer in the game. In some examples the opponent may be the systemusing artificial intelligence. In some examples, the opponent may beanother human player.

In some examples, the amount donated may determine the effectiveness ofthe hindrance and/or aid. For example, a one dollar donation mayincrease the health of a unit by 100 points, where ten dollars mayincrease the health of a unit by 1000 points.

At 404, the system may receive an indication from a viewer to help orhinder a player and/or team. The indication may be provided through theactuation of an actuatable element provided in a graphical userinterface available to the viewer. For example, the GUI may provide adrop down menu of options for helping or hindering a player and/or team.The GUI may also provide an actuatable element to purchase the option.The purchase may be conducted through a payment provider or transferfunds from the user account using a payment server, such as paymentserver 142 of FIG. 1. In some embodiments, the payment server may behandled by a third party, such as third-party server 114 of FIG. 1. Someand/or all of the funds may be transferred to the team and/or playerbeing helped and/or hindered.

At 405, the system may provide the help and/or hindrance that wereindicated by the viewer at 404. In some embodiments, the system mayallow the user to choose when help or hindrance is introduced into thegame. In this manner, the viewer may provide help or hindrance at acritical moment in the game.

In some embodiments, method 400 may be applied in a campaign game thatis not competitive. Audience members may enjoy disrupting a game byhindering a player or team of players from reaching an objective. Thisis sometimes referred to as “trolling,” with the main purpose of gaininga laugh at the expense of someone else (e.g. a player). In someembodiments, the system may allow users to troll players by addingdifficult minions, adding lag, slowing player movement, addingblockades, and changing other game mechanics to generally annoy theplayers and/or disrupt a game. In some examples, viewers may have todonate to change the game mechanics in a similar manner as described atprocess 403-404.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary method 500 forautomatically adjusting game mechanics based on audience preferences.Much like sports, viewers have opinions on how video games should beadjusted for optimal entertainment. Some viewers may be interested inshort, action packed games with constant battling. Another group ofviewers instead of action packed games may be more interested in slow,defensive, and technical games. A system implementing method 500 maytailor games based on the audience viewing the game.

At 501, the system may determine which viewers are viewing a video gamestream and/or media channel. In some embodiments, users may be requiredto log into an account to view a stream and the system may determinewhich accounts are accessing the stream.

At 502, the system may access a database of recorded user history, suchas user account database 156 of FIG. 1, and determine which streamsand/or replays of games the user accounts watched. The system maydetermine which streams and/or game replays are popular amongst theaudience. In some embodiments, the system may also check viewing timesand/or how much of a stream and/or replay was watched to determine whichstreams or replays of games were the most engaging. The system maydetermine that viewers enjoyed streams or replays of game plays thatwere watched for longer periods of time and/or viewed the entiretyand/or majority of the game play. In some embodiments, users may be ableto vote (e.g. thumbs up or thumbs down) on streams and replays that theaudience liked or disliked. The system may track the history of the upand down votes of users to determine which games the viewers are mostinterested in. The system may track game mechanics of each game streamand or replay, such as maps, characters, game length, units, racesplayed (in some games players are able to play different races such asorc, human, etc.), and/or the like. In some embodiments, users may alsofill out a questionnaire regarding the viewing preferences and gamemechanic preferences of the user. The questionnaire may ask questionssuch as, favorite character race, player, map, power-ups, weapons,and/or the like. The questionnaire may also be used in determining theviewing preferences of a viewing audience. In some embodiments, thequestionnaire may be provided as part of a user profile when an accountis initially created.

At 503, the system may identify preferred game mechanics of the viewers.In some examples, preferred game mechanics are determined by commonelements from the game statistics of the most popular streams and/orreplays. For example, the system may determine that the most populargames used (or did not use) smaller maps, certain characters, and/orcertain weapons. In some embodiments, the determination may be made byanalyzing the historic votes, watching history, and/or questionnaires ofthe audience. For example, the replay and/or stream with the most upvotes may be considered the most popular. In some examples the systemmay count up votes and down votes and subtract the down votes from theup votes to determine popularity.

In some embodiments, the system may count maps, characters, game times,and/or other game mechanics from well liked game plays. Well liked gameplays may be game plays with above average up votes, game play watchingtime, and/or game plays commonly watched by most of the viewers.

At 504, the system may receive a request to begin a game. The requestmay come from one or more players, and/or one or more moderators for agame. The game may have a randomizer that randomizes certain mechanicsof the video game, such as which map is played, the races of the player,spawning areas, starting weapons, and/or the like.

At 505, the system may set the game mechanics with the common elementsdetermined at 503. For example, the audience may have a preference of alarger map. The system at 505 may increase the odds of a larger mapbeing used from a pool of maps, and/or use a map that is determined tobe the most popular at 503. Other game mechanics that may be changed bythe system may be game speed. The system at 503 may determine that theusers are interested in relatively short games and the system may, toshorten a game, increase movement speeds, attack speeds, and/or attackdamage of units in the game.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary user interface 600 that may be used witha system and method of audience adjusted game mechanics, such as method400 of FIG. 4. In some embodiments, user interface 600 may be presentedto one or more viewers of a streaming video game by a player. In someembodiments, user interface 600 may be an interface displayed within aweb browser connected to a web server, such as web server 122 of FIG. 1.In some embodiments, user interface 600 may be an interface displayed byan application, such as client program 106 of FIG. 1, on a user device,such as one of client devices 104 of FIG. 1.

User interface 600 may have a media player 601 for displaying a videogame being played by one or more players and/or players of a video game.In some examples, media player 601 may have actuatable elements (notshown) which allow a user to pause, play, rewind, and/or fast forwardthe media. There may also be volume controls and/or video qualitycontrols (e.g. ultra high definition, high definition, low quality,etc.).

In some embodiments, user interface 600 may have a chat window 602 whereviewers and/or players may engage in a textual discussion in a publicand/or private chat forum. In some examples, chat window 602 may be aprivate chat window where only people who are invited, such as friends,may view and join the chat session. The chat window may have moderatorcontrols, such as the ability to kick out, ban, invite, and/or muteother users. In some embodiments, the moderator controls may beconducted through textual commands that are entered into the chat. Insome examples, the moderator controls may be actuatable elements (notshown) that are a part of chat window 602.

User interface 600 may display several actuatable elements 603 which,when actuated, allow a user to pick an aid or hindrance, such as theaids or hinderances discussed above in relation to FIG. 4, that can beapplied to one or more players and/or teams playing the game beingdisplayed in media player 601. The actuatable elements may be virtualbuttons on the user interface. In some embodiments aiding or hindering aplayer or team playing a game may require a donation of currency, gamepoints, game coins, and/or the like. To facilitate the donations, theremay be a donate button 604 which allows the user to donate and/ortransfer money to a team and/or player. In some embodiments, actuatingone or more actuatable elements 603 may enabled through a donationand/or money transfer. The donation button, when actuated, may requestmore information, such as the choice of a payment provider, paymentaccount information, credit card numbers, and/or the like. In someexamples, the donate button may retrieve funds that are already presentin and/or related to a user account. The actuating donate button 604 maythen be used to transfer funds from the user to one or more playersplaying the videogame displayed in media player 601.

Where applicable, various embodiments provided by the present disclosuremay be implemented using hardware, software, or combinations of hardwareand software. Also, where applicable, the various hardware componentsand/or software components set forth herein may be combined intocomposite components comprising software, hardware, and/or both withoutdeparting from the scope of the present disclosure. Where applicable,the various hardware components and/or software components set forthherein may be separated into sub-components comprising software,hardware, or both without departing from the scope of the presentdisclosure. In addition, where applicable, it is contemplated thatsoftware components may be implemented as hardware components andvice-versa.

Software, in accordance with the present disclosure, such as programcode and/or data, may be stored on one or more computer readablemediums. It is also contemplated that software identified herein may beimplemented using one or more general purpose or specific purposecomputers and/or computer systems, networked and/or otherwise. Whereapplicable, the ordering of various steps described herein may bechanged, combined into composite steps, and/or separated into sub-stepsto provide features described herein.

The foregoing disclosure is not intended to limit the present disclosureto the precise forms or particular fields of use disclosed. As such, itis contemplated that various alternate embodiments and/or modificationsto the present disclosure, whether explicitly described or impliedherein, are possible in light of the disclosure. Having thus describedembodiments of the present disclosure, persons of ordinary skill in theart will recognize that changes may be made in form and detail withoutdeparting from the scope of the present disclosure. Thus, the presentdisclosure is limited only by the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system, comprising: one or more processors; anda memory coupled to the one or more processors and storing instructionsthat, when executed by the one or more processors, perform operations,comprising: receiving, from one or more computing devices, a request toreceive streaming video of a video game; providing one or more gamemechanics to the one or more computing devices; receiving, from the oneor more computing devices, input that requests at least one of the oneor more game mechanics be changed; and altering the at least one of theone or more game mechanics based, at least in part, on the receivedinput.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more game mechanicsis a difficulty setting of the video game.
 3. The system of claim 1,wherein the one or more game mechanics is a size of map associated withthe video game.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more gamemechanics is an attribute of a character of the video game.
 5. Thesystem of claim 4, wherein the attribute is a damage-per-second of thecharacter.
 6. The system of claim 4, wherein the attribute is a movementspeed of the character.
 7. The system of claim 1, further comprisingreceiving a monetary contribution from a user of the one or morecomputing devices prior to providing the one or more game mechanics tothe one or more computing devices.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein theat least one of the one or more game mechanics is altered based, atleast in part, on an amount of money contributed by a user associatedwith the one or more computing devices.
 9. The system of claim 1,wherein the one or more game mechanics is altered for an amount of time.10. The system of claim 9, wherein the amount of time is based, at leastin part, on a monetary value contributed by a user associated with theone or more computing devices.
 11. A method, comprising: receiving, fromone or more computing devices, a request to live stream a video game;providing one or more game mechanics of the video game to the one ormore computing devices; receiving, from the one or more computingdevices, input that requests a change to the one or more game mechanics;and altering the at least one of the one or more game mechanics based,at least in part, on the received input.
 12. The method of claim 11,further comprising receiving a monetary contribution from a user of theone or more computing devices prior to providing the one or more gamemechanics to the one or more computing devices.
 13. The method of claim11, wherein the at least one of the one or more game mechanics isaltered based, at least in part, on an amount of money contributed by auser associated with the one or more computing devices.
 14. The methodof claim 11, wherein the one or more game mechanics is altered for anamount of time.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the amount of timeis based, at least in part, on a monetary value contributed by a userassociated with the one or more computing devices.
 16. The method ofclaim 11, wherein the one or more game mechanics is a difficulty settingof the video game.
 17. The method of claim 11, wherein the one or moregame mechanics is associated with a map of the video game.
 18. A method,comprising: receiving, from a remote computing device, a live stream ofa video game; receiving, from the remote computing device, one or moregame mechanics of the video game; providing input that requests a changeto the one or more game mechanics during the live stream; and sendingthe request to the remote computing device.
 19. The method of claim 18,further comprising receiving an indication that the one or more gamemechanics has been altered.
 20. The method of claim 18, wherein the oneor more game mechanics is a difficulty level of the video game.